Bibliotherapy
Azizuddin Nasafi – From ‘The Book Of The Perfect Man’: About Revelation, Inspiration And Dreams: A Game Of Mirrors

‘Rustem sleeping’,
from the ‘Shah Nameh‘ by Firdusi,
School of Tabris, 16th century Persian miniature.
In the collections of the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris, France.
*
Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA, is excerpted from Azizuddin Nasafi’s ‘The book of the Perfect Man’, Fayard, Paris, 1984. Our English translation comes from Isabelle de Gastine’s French translation of the original Persian. Excerpts are from page 192 to 198 at the beginning of treatise 18, of which we published a part ‘About dreams’. It is fascinating to discover essential similitudes in Louis Claude de Saint-Martin’s text from ‘the Spirit of things’, ‘Of the Spirit of Mirrors‘, and with Suhrawardi ishraqi philosophy, especially theses two texts: ‘On How And In What Order The Many Are Generated From The Truly One.’ and ‘Of Dazzling Flashes Of Light & The Descent Of The Sakina’.
**

A group of dervishes,’May God multiply their numbers!‘, asked my frail person to write a treatise about revelation, inspiration and dreams. I granted their wish and prayed the All Mighty Lord to help and assist me, so to keep me away from faults and errors, because ‘He is mighty and eager to provide‘.
Know,’May God be blessed in the two worlds‘, that each time a man purifies himself interiorly and makes the mirror of his heart pure and limpid, he is getting closer to the celestial angels, because they are completely pure and limpid, possessing all wisdom and purity.
O Dervishes! The human spirit is of the nature of the celestial angels; it is of a pure and limpid substance. But, this substance, in contact with the body, becomes soiled and tarnished. When a man renounces pleasures and carnal satisfactions, when he harvests wisdom and purity, when he purifies himself internally and externally, when he polishes the mirror of his heart: his spirit becomes pure and limpid again.
After that, a relation is then established between the spirit of Man and the celestial angels: Angel and Man are like two polished mirrors, place in front of each other. Everything that is in one, is reflected in the other and vice-versa. This confrontation, these meetings occur when we are awake and also during our sleep; for many during sleep, for some very few only during wake. During our waking time, this meeting induces extasy, inspiration and angelic memory; during sleep, true dreams are manifested.
It has been said that celestial angels are all pure and limpid, all exalted in wisdom and purity. Know that the more the region of the heavens is close to the Center, the more the angels of these heavens are pure and wise, the more their wisdom and purity is great. Therefore, the more a man strives in his edification and ascesis, the more he become limpid and pure, the more the angel he mirrors is of a higher essence. It may happens also that a man may outgrow in wisdom and purity all of the angels and reach the First Intelligence.
Some scholars affirm that this is the limit that such a man could reach; that the First Intelligence is a mediator between God and Humanity because Intelligence is the Angel the closest to God; it is gnostic and essential in its unmatched closeness to God. Others say otherwise, that a man can go beyond the First Intelligence, and, this without his help, converse with God. It is for a man the supreme honor. It is the sign of such an achievement that nothing from the sensible & intelligible worlds, from the Cherubic Intelligences and the origin of everything is hidden from him. Onward, such a man perceives the reity (note: refers to the material character, the reality of a thing) of all things-their nature, properties and true reality. As, some see while dreaming the spirits of some prophets, some Friends of God or some angels, conversing with them and asking for help and guidance, he, in a waking state sees them, talks to them and invokes them. Such is the meaning of the unveiling of revelation and of inspiration.
Such a man is called the Perfect Man. Anybody who reach that level is for his fellow humans down here a great presence and help; in the manner of the intelligences and spirits of the superior worlds, he has a might upon the inferior world. He rescue anybody who asks for help, his essential moral’s strength infuses upon the affairs of this world and the upper ones as well. And, if after his death his burial place becomes a pilgrimage destination, he continues to help the pilgrim who invokes him during his visit. The visitor stands in a respectful distance from the grave, facing it and then, free of all distractions he polishes the mirror of his heart until his spirit, through the mediation of the tomb, meets the spirit of the visited. If the visitor asks for the mystical science and knowledge, if he possess the ability to understand, at the very moment of his demand, it appears in its heart. And, if such a man ask for rescue and assistance, his request, once the pilgrimage accomplished, is heard and his affairs solved. If the spirit of the visited benefits, not from the divine Proximity, but from the friends of God, he intercedes with them-so that God may hear him.
Know that the scourge or the manna that, from the invisible world travels towards the visible world-even before reaching it-appears in the heart of the Perfect Man and his state warns him. What some see in dreams, he sees it in his wake. What the Cherubs and the Pure Spirits perceive, he perceives it also.
*
O Dervishes! How many time have you heard that in the infinite ocean that englobes our earthly world, a mirror is placed that reveals the universe; a mirror in which all things carried by this ocean reflect in this-even before their reflection reaches us in our world. And yet, here you are ignoring what is this mirror and that ocean! Know that this ocean is the invisible world of divine fulness ; and this mirror is the heart of the Perfect Man.
Besides the pilgrim family, there is another group whose heart, originally limpid and void of any stain. upon their heart everything from this ocean is reflected also. The members of this community dwell upon the secrets of humanity and it’s states of affairs.
Now, some animals’ hearts can also reflect the things this ocean carries, when their heart are limpid and pure too. These animals warn their neighboring humans, but only very few of them understand their providential herald.
*
Know that for the doctors of the Law, the celestial angels can take a shape and appear to some of them saying: ‘We are angels sent by God to accomplish a task‘, as it is reported in the Qur’an about Myriam and also Abraham. Often such mentions are made in the Qur’an or the Hadiths. Other times, the celestial angels do not appear to the wise humans, but just talk to them and direct them into tasks. It is the secret path.
These prefatory words being written down, know now that when the celestial Angel insufflate a message in the heart of a human being, if this influx is happening during waking time, it is called inspiration; if it is happening during sleep, it is called true dream. When the Angel takes a shape, appears to the Prophets and transmits them God’s Word, this message is called revelation.
*
Know that according to the philosophers, these shapes only manifest to the person in whom the imaginative faculties are ripe. It is not the reality of most people, but only of a very few. The human being possesses three faculties: To imagine, to understand and to act. Upon some these faculties are strong, upon others their are but un-grown seeds and finally for a few they are un-even. The person who is gifted with a fair use of his imagination will see many shapes and forms. The creator of the forms and shapes is the ‘within’, the ‘inside’ of the visionary himself. Even though he will make some forms or shapes appear, he may as well make them appear during waking time. This phenomenon is common to all human beings during sleep and for a very few number during their wake. For instance, it happens that someone gets thirsty during sleep. A form appears and hand over a cup full of water, so that the dreamer can quench the thirst. Drinking this water provides an intense pleasure invades the person whose thirst is quenched; and when the person wakes up, a taste of pleasure remains still. But there is no doubt that this form and that water are purely imaginary; it is also clear that the originator of this form and of this water is from the ‘inside’ of the dreamer. During wake, it also can happen that a person is in the middle of a desert and is tortured by a burning thirst and there is no water available. Again, a form appears with a cup of water and providentially hand it over to the person. It is the same for hunger. Therefore, imagination and fantasy-the illusion- create forms and internal & external shapes. By the illusion the person is made thirsty, and by it, the thirst is quenched; through it, again, the person may become ill and eventually die. This estimative faculty produces great effect upon the human being.
O Dervishes! Fantasy is opposed to intelligence and, sadly in most cases, prevails upon it. But let’s come back to our subject. According to the same philosophers, these shapes and forms are not angels, because celestial angels are always in their line of command, busy over the task that was assigned to them. As we mentioned earlier, the celestial angels are pure and limpid beings, all wise and unsoiled. Therefore, when someone, through ascesis and assiduity become also pure and limpide, harvesting wisdom and purity, a bind, a link is established between the person and the celestial angel. The person and the angel are, as said also earlier, similar to two limpid mirrors facing each other. This encounter, this meeting, during wake provides inspiration; during sleep, true dream. Such is the meaning of ‘to see Khidr & Elias’ and to ‘see messengers of the invisible realm’. Such is the meaning of the forms that the pilgrims see in the intimacy of their mystical retreat, such as ‘the Master of the invisible realm, Elias‘, and all of the others forms that have no human appearance, all luminous forms, as bright than the Sun, the Moon and the Stars.
If someone asks, ‘Because the angels do not know the invisible, how would they know what tomorrow or next year will bring?‘ Know, that the angels are part of the invisible realm, because they ARE the invisible realm. In this realm, there is no yesterday, no today, no tomorrow; also no last year and no present year, nor no year to come. A hundred thousand years passed or a hundred thousand years to come are indifferently present, because the invisible realm is not the realm of opposites, of contraries, because antagonism is the lot of the visible world.
O Dervishes! Time and temporal dimensions only exist for us-Children of the Spheres and of the Stars, dwellers of the visible world. In the invisible realm, there is neither time, nor temporal dimensions. Everything that was, is and will be-IS PRESENT.
The angels therefore know the things to come into the visible world from the invisible realm. This wisdom of the celestial angels is thus reflected into the mirrors of our hearts and inform us. It is possible that an information reaches us in a day, a year, maybe two years, perhaps in a hundred years or a thousand years.

We suggest, as further reading,
this text from Henri Corbin,
‘The prophets, as eyes of God‘.
*
Source
***

Leave a Reply